FLETC trainees can earn college credit under pact with College of Coastal Georgia

Terry.Dickson@jacksonville.com Coastal Georgia President Valerie Hepburn (left) and Connie Patrick, FLETC director, sign an agreement to allow agents get college credit for courses they take.

BRUNSWICK | The top administrators of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and College of Coastal Georgia signed an agreement Wednesday in which federal trainees can receive college credit for training programs taken at the center.

In fact, federal agents who trained at the center in the past three years may be eligible for college credit for training programs they already have completed.

Before she and FLETC Director Connie Patrick signed the documents, Coastal Georgia President Valerie Hepburn said the agreement will mesh the “incredible talents” of training center’s training staff with those of the college’s academic instructors.

Of the 13,000 graduates in the past three years, 4,500 work for agencies that don’t require college degrees, Patrick said. But that leaves 8,500 who may be eligible for college credits up to 12 hours, she said.

Agents doing routine police work, such as border protection or working with the Capitol Police or Parks Police, don’t need degrees but most criminal investigators do, Patrick said.

The college credit will help them work toward a degree, Hepburn said.

William “Skip” Mounts, dean of the School of Business and Public Affairs at Coastal Georgia, said college and FLETC officials went through a process called “cross walking,” in which they compared three training programs at the training center with four academic courses at the college.

“We met and took those programs, looked at learning outcomes and seat time and compared them to our classes,’’ Mounts said. “We determined the experience at FLETC, if they co-enrolled, would be the same education they would get here.”

If they complete the training center’s Criminal Investigation, Land Management Police Training and Uniform Police Training programs, the co-enrolled agents will receive college credit in Coastal Georgia’s Introduction to Criminal Justice, Introduction to Law Enforcement, Introduction to Criminal Law and Introduction to Criminal Investigation, Mounts said.

At Coastal Georgia, those courses can count toward an associate’s degree in criminal justice or a bachelor of science degree in public affairs with a concentration in criminal justice and security, he said.

Patrick also noted that some of the federal agencies will pay for their officers’ college.

The agreement is just the latest step in a partnership that has gone on for years and included the training center’s loaned executives program in which some of its accomplished staff members have worked at the college.

“People have asked why we did that. This is why,’’ she said of the agreement. “You have to have people who understand both.”

The professional practitioners at the training center and the college’s academics are more similar than most people think, she said.

Hepburn said the co-enrolled students’ credits are transferable to colleges and universities elsewhere in the country where agents are working or training.

FLETC has other training facilities in Artesia, N.M., Cheltenham, Md., and Charleston, S.C.